BRICS states to form teams to work on their bank

Moscow, April 19 (IANS/RIA Novosti) Finance ministers of the BRICS countries have agreed to set up delegations that would work out the main principles for the establishment of a development bank by this fall, Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak said.

Last month, finance ministers of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- the countries that form the BRICS organisation -- agreed to form a development bank, but failed to reach consensus on the bank's size or the member countries' contributions to its capital.

"We have reached an agreement that each country will form a delegation that will have its own leader and powers, and then to start full-scale negotiations concerning all aspects of the bank's establishment," Storchak said.

He said that the main principles of the bank's establishment would be ready by the summit of G20 leaders, scheduled to be held in September in St. Petersburg.

The idea of setting up a BRICS development bank as an alternative to the Western-dominated World Bank and the International Monetary Fund came from India at the 2012 meeting of the organisation's finance ministers in Mexico.

--IANS/RIA Novosti

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